Comments on: From the vaults of Twitter http://damieng.com/blog/2008/07/10/from-the-vaults-of-twitter?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=from-the-vaults-of-twitter A .NET developer in silicon valley Fri, 18 May 2012 15:31:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: Jeremy Gray http://damieng.com/blog/2008/07/10/from-the-vaults-of-twitter#comment-9062 Jeremy Gray Sat, 26 Jul 2008 18:21:19 +0000 http://damieng.com/blog/2008/07/10/from-the-vaults-of-twitter#comment-9062 Apparently the model Ms are still being manufactured, complete with their original buckling spring keys (though now in plastic housings instead of metal ones), by a US company that bought the designs, equipment, etc. from Lexmark (who of course got it from IBM.) They go under the product name of Customizer now, and a search for Unicomp will turn up the company and a place to buy them. At $70 a pop I'll probably be buying at least two (one for home and one for my client site) pretty soon. Apparently the model Ms are still being manufactured, complete with their original buckling spring keys (though now in plastic housings instead of metal ones), by a US company that bought the designs, equipment, etc. from Lexmark (who of course got it from IBM.) They go under the product name of Customizer now, and a search for Unicomp will turn up the company and a place to buy them. At $70 a pop I’ll probably be buying at least two (one for home and one for my client site) pretty soon.

]]> By: Damien Guard http://damieng.com/blog/2008/07/10/from-the-vaults-of-twitter#comment-9015 Damien Guard Fri, 11 Jul 2008 17:45:48 +0000 http://damieng.com/blog/2008/07/10/from-the-vaults-of-twitter#comment-9015 I have an IBM Model M but I much prefer the Das Keyboard 2 with it's Cherry MX switches (which are very different from Alps switches). The noise doesn't bother me but it certainly bothers others - how they expect developers to work in open-plan cubes anyway... [)amien I have an IBM Model M but I much prefer the Das Keyboard 2 with it’s Cherry MX switches (which are very different from Alps switches).

The noise doesn’t bother me but it certainly bothers others – how they expect developers to work in open-plan cubes anyway…

[)amien

]]> By: robert http://damieng.com/blog/2008/07/10/from-the-vaults-of-twitter#comment-9014 robert Fri, 11 Jul 2008 17:19:24 +0000 http://damieng.com/blog/2008/07/10/from-the-vaults-of-twitter#comment-9014 I've been using a Northgate, then two Avant Primes after Northgate went under (they bought the rights). The original IBM is the best, if you can find one. And then, Cherry flouts their Alps switched keyboards. The Avant keys have more horizontal play than the IBM, so I considered the Cherry. Then I took the keys off to clean them and found Alps switches. Don't know if there are meaningfully different versions of those switches. The Avant comes from Creative Vision Tech and is programmable on windoze. About $150 last I looked. The noise is not so much the switches, but the metal chassis bottom plate. Kind of like a piano sounding board. I kinda like it. I’ve been using a Northgate, then two Avant Primes after Northgate went under (they bought the rights). The original IBM is the best, if you can find one. And then, Cherry flouts their Alps switched keyboards. The Avant keys have more horizontal play than the IBM, so I considered the Cherry. Then I took the keys off to clean them and found Alps switches. Don’t know if there are meaningfully different versions of those switches. The Avant comes from Creative Vision Tech and is programmable on windoze. About $150 last I looked.

The noise is not so much the switches, but the metal chassis bottom plate. Kind of like a piano sounding board. I kinda like it.

]]> By: Steve http://damieng.com/blog/2008/07/10/from-the-vaults-of-twitter#comment-9010 Steve Thu, 10 Jul 2008 22:46:36 +0000 http://damieng.com/blog/2008/07/10/from-the-vaults-of-twitter#comment-9010 The '..' operator is completely bonkers but at the same time strangely attractive. Not having to worry about inherited interfaces implicitly upcasting without being wrapped for each subclass, casting or using a nasty generics hack is certainly interesting, as is being able to chain methods where you don't care about the return value, or perhaps even process it inside parentheses (although that might lead to levels of nested obsfucation that even Perl would balk at). The ‘..’ operator is completely bonkers but at the same time strangely attractive. Not having to worry about inherited interfaces implicitly upcasting without being wrapped for each subclass, casting or using a nasty generics hack is certainly interesting, as is being able to chain methods where you don’t care about the return value, or perhaps even process it inside parentheses (although that might lead to levels of nested obsfucation that even Perl would balk at).

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